The present invention relates to a process for treating a fish head with minimal damage to the headskin. It has particular relevance to salmonid fish. The process displays particular importance in the art of taxidermy.
When mounting a fish, the practitioner desires to construct a mount that imparts a lasting impression of reality. Generally, taxidermy accomplishes this objective through the use of naturally connected or unbroken skin parts of the fish. With dry, or oil free, fish, such as the largemouth bass, this reality through the use of the unbroken skin parts is easily accomplished. However with oily fish such as the salmonid, which includes salmon, trout, and other oily skinned specimens, prior practice has removed either the skull or, more recently, cut off and disposed of about the top one third of these fish skulls with the skin attached.
This method did serve to remove the oily and fatty substances of the skull and headskin as well as the relatively soft skull cartilage of the salmonid fish. However, it created the new problem of a void that had to be filled in order to complete the mounting of the fish.
The void that results from removing the entire or a portion of the skull receives a filling of various materials such as plastic epoxies, paper mache, and various other fillers molded to simulate the head shape. These materials, formulated for other purposes, do not readily bond to natural animal skin. The adhesion problem is exacerbated by the fact that these filler materials do not expand or contract at the same rate as the natural fish skin. As a result, the filler material often separates from the natural skin. The relative movement of the skin and filler results from varying temperature and humidity conditions. Any residual oils that remain in the skin at the margin of the incisions made to achieve access to the fish head will compound the separation from the modeled head.
In general, the separation of the skin from the head proves quite unsightly to the viewer of such specimens. Further, the separation often lifts and cracks the paint or other colorants used to finish the head. As a result, a general feeling exists in the taxidermy profession that the heads of such specimens, so treated, may last about two years before any such separation occurs.
A further difficulty occurs in trying to blend the filler material at a juncture with the back skin of the fish. Additionally, matching the oddly colored fillers to the natural skin of the fish when finishing the specimen also poses a major hurdle.
Moreover, fillers require appreciable time to model and harden properly. This results in additional time and expense to complete the mount.
Removing a portion or all of a fish skull, especially when accompanied by the disposal of a portion or all of the headskin, causes the loss of control when placing the remaining head onto an artificial manikin. The tension provided by the large skin area becomes lost upon disposing of that very skin. As a consequence, the taxidermist must wire and pin parts into place with a profusion of such aids.
Further, disposing of the fish headskin eliminates the natural markings of the specimen. The restoration of the marking never equals the original.
Another method of mounting the salmonid or other oily fish leaves the skull and headskin as is with no treatment other than a preservative soaking or oil removal soaking. Simply soaking the head proves effective neither in preserving nor in removing the oil. Neither step can be effectively accomplished from the outside of the fish's head. The soaking must occur on the skull area or on the underside of the skin itself, or both. With salmonid fish in particular, a large amount of oil lies under the skin and cannot be removed by an external soaking.
Further, an external soaking causes the skin and the underlying flesh to shrink away and the oils to bleed out or shift around under the skull skin. The head, upon drying, will show caved-in areas of the skull. A clearly unnatural appearance of the finished mount results.
In another method of treating, the fish head, after a presoak, undergoes freezedrying. This technique claims that it stops the bleedout, or perculation, of oil through the skull or headskin of the fish head. However, it does not prevent the caving in of the treated head during the drying process.
The primary problem with oily fishes relates, of course, to the large amounts of oils contained in the skin. If not removed from the skin, the oil will perculate through the skin to the exterior. This precludes the paints or other coolants from properly bonding with the skin and causes the emission of oil odors. Further, the oil proves extremely penetrating and can perculate through flesh and dried bone. It will soften these materials, render preservatives less effective, and permit the invasion of insects into the finished mount.
The treating of fish heads for taxidermy purposes can make advantageous use of a workable method of accessing fish heads that is not so radical or as destructive of the desirable parts of the heads. The headskin of the specimens should remain in as undamaged condition as practical while providing access to the oils and other undesirable natural materials for their effective treatment or removal.